Glorious
by thatreevesgirl
Summary: You reminded me of the beauty of death, of how if we fight hard and honorably there is glory and meaning in the way we die. Sai x Sakura


_**Glorious**_  
**_by Lemon Drops/thatreevesgirl (both me)_**

**Authors Note:** This was for a fic-trade with tasukigirl (who is one of my favorite authors, hooray). Not beta'd so let me know if you see errors.

_**ONE-SHOT**_

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If the world were to come crashing down upon her today, Sakura would have welcomed it with open arms. She felt numb, completely unfeeling as she lay beneath a maple tree in the Konohan training area. The numbness wasn't from injury or exhaustion, it was a different kind of deadness which centered somewhere near her heart.

_I am no good... worthless, stupid, powerless, hopeless, no good at all!_

A gush of wind whipped through the trees, tearing and biting the world with its pre-winter chill.

_If fall is here, then how much more time do we really have? _Sakura considered as she watched a few gold and red leaves drift down to the earth, soon to be gone and forgotten as beautiful as they once were.

"Sulking won't bring him back," her teammate murmured as he found a suitable place to sit beside Sakura.

"And neither will I," pouted the kunoichi.

The man next to Sakura snorted lightly, "Definitely not with that attitude, do you really think so lowly of yourself?"

"Well I didn't, not until we found Sasuke. I was worthless."

"Says the only known living person to have killed a member of the akatsuki," he rebutted.

Sakura glared up at the young man seated beside her, because that was a flat out lie.

"Kakashi and Naruto killed one as well," she muttered.

Sai shook his head, "They escaped as that member took his own life, so clearly that doesn't count."

Sakura huffed, because Sai was so obstinate, even when he was trying to cheer her up. It surprised the young woman to know that despite how annoyed she became with the young artist he _did_ make her feel better.

"So now we just wait? Hope and pray Naruto finishes that damn technique of his in time? What if even _that_ isn't enough?" Sakura whispered. It was a terrible thought which plagued her mind at least once a day. As strong as they were, what if it _wasn't_ enough?

Sai looked down, giving Sakura one of the genuine smiles which he had become more accustomed to in the past few weeks since returning from their mission to save Sasuke. It was a handsome and pure smile, not many shinobi could grin like that after the things Sai had lived through.

His face softened, releasing the smile and he answered simply, "Then we go down gloriously."

What was that supposed to mean? Go down gloriously…sounded like pure rubbish to the young woman, who lifted an unconvinced and skeptical pink eyebrow at the idea. Maybe it was Naruto's diehard spirit which had been beaten into her, but the thought of death and defeat being glorious wasn't something Sakura had ever considered.

Sai grinned again and picked up a handful of red leaves, scattering them upon Sakura before reaching to find more of the fallen red gems to cover her with, dropping the on her carefully.

Okay…this was just strange, what was Sai doing?

"Sai?"

"Ssh, I'm busy," he told her with a very serious look.

The young man piled leaves upon Sakura until she was very nearly buried alive in the things, stopping only after he was satisfied with the placement and amount of leaves on Sakura. Reaching into his pack the artist pulled out a sketch pad and began to draw the woman engulfed in leaves.

A stroke of his pencil here and there, a careful considering look as he examined her closely, and a smirk when he had a great idea and scribbled it onto the paper furiously…this is what Sakura observed as she watched him draw her.

Quietly Sai whispered, "You looked as if you too had fallen from the tree, broken and useless as those leaves. I suppose I was inspired."

Knowing artists didn't like it when their subject matter moved Sakura tried to stay as still as possible, gazing intently at Sai as she added, "I kind of felt like that, until you cheered me up."

"I'm glad I could help," he murmured as he finished the sketch and put the pad back into his pack, scooting himself closer to the kunoichi, and finally lying down after he was settled.

"You surely aren't going to leave me like this, are you?" Sakura grumbled, letting the aggravation in her voice show through, because she was feeling a bit itchy and claustrophobic from the large amount of crinkly, dry leaves scattered about her body.

Sai chuckled and rolled his eyes, "Sakura, I thought you were tough, but maybe your assertions about being worthless are true if you can't even get out of a pile of leaves."

He made her so furious, even if it was a good kind of furious. Sakura sprang to life and began to throw leaves on the man lying to her right, hopping on him and shoving leaves down that blasted belly shirt of his…didn't he know it was getting cold out? Fall wasn't the time for clothing like this. She smirked and shoved as many leaves as she could inside while straddling his naked stomach before he grabbed her wrists and stopped her.

He smirked, "Really, Sakura, was that necessary?"

"Absolutely," she retorted with an indignant grunt, pulling back to inspect her handiwork.

Sakura broke down into a fit of giggles at the sight of Sai. "You look like you have breasts, fake ones, because you stuff with leaves."

"Do you like those kinds of things?" he asked quietly while trying to rid himself of some of the broken bits of leaf on his shirt, then shoving her back enough so he could pull the rest from his shirt.

Sakura wasn't sure what he was implying, though it probably was something along the lines of _do you want me to have breasts?_ There were so many things which were a bit off with Sai, his naivety when dealing with the opposite sex being pretty high on the list of things he wasn't well adept with yet.

Sakura arched forward and tugged on the shirt, now riddled with remnants of leaves, deciding the best way to get them all out was to take it off completely and shake the fabric clean. Sai complied fairly well as he moved to give her easier access to remove his clothing, however, he obviously didn't understand the innocent reason why Sakura had done so.

Sai's strong, graceful hands grabbed the hem of Sakura's shirt and tugged at it as well, trying to pull it off of her body. The confused gasp which escaped the kunoichi's lips alerted him to the fact that whatever he was trying wasn't what Sakura wanted.

He tugged it back down, turning a bit red, and mumbled a jumbled apology, "I'm sorry, Sakura, I didn't…I thought…"

She was pretty sure she knew what he _thought_ was happening, and also realized that she had played a pretty big role in making that misunderstanding happen. Sai's fingertips still gripped at the hem of her shirt, trying profusely to tug it back into the most proper place possible until Sakura laid her hand on his.

"It's okay, Sai, don't worry about it," she told him with a smile.

The strange thing about straddling a person's chest is that if they sigh, you can feel it, and as the low hiss of air escaped Sai's lungs Sakura could literally _feel_ the disappointment escaping from him.

"I love watching the trees turn, drawing them as the fade and die away in such a brilliant and mesmerizing way," Sai told her quietly. "But it isn't really death, because in three months that beautiful and glorious demise which these trees suffered through is nullified and life is reborn."

Sakura was beginning to comprehend what Sai had implied when he said 'go down gloriously.'

"I meant it when I said you looked like those leaves, the only proof, the only memories these trees have of their own death."

So did that mean that Sakura was a memory, some kind of proof, a leaf? She was back to not understanding a word of what Sai was saying.

"You reminded me of the beauty of death, of how if we fight hard and honorably there is glory and meaning in the way we die."

It wasn't like a lightbulb turned on in Sakura's head, she still wasn't sure exactly what he was trying to say, but she now added poet to things which described this beautiful man. His words were like those in a poem, one which you had to decipher the meaning of carefully or you miss its true intentions entirely. Sakura smiled, and leaned down to kiss the young man beneath her.

Pulling away she whispered, "To glorious death or wondrous victory, I certainly hope it's the latter."

"Me too," Sai replied as he pulled her down into another kiss.

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_**END OF ONE-SHOT**_

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**End of Chapter A/N's**: The main word I used from the three she gave me was "momiji" and the pairing was Sakura and Sai. And yes, it is reminiscent of my snow chapter in Hot Sand, but I…I…I'm out of freakin' ideas!!!! Just leave me alone. XP hee-hee. I also realize that the Klingons might have invaded my fic…glorious death…oh cripes.


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